Mabel Sybil (May) Leslie (Burr)

Place of birth: Woodlesford near Leeds

Service: Scientist, Chemist, HM Factory Penrhyndeudraeth, 1915 - 1918

Death: 1937/07/03, Bardsey, Leeds, Cancer / canser

Notes: May Leslie was born 1887, the daughter of a miner. Her father was very interested in education and self-improvement, for himself and his children. May won scholarships to High School and to Leeds University, where she gained First Class Honours in Chemistry in 1908, followed by a three year scholarship to study with Marie Curie in Paris. In 1914 she obtained an assistant lecturer’s post at University College Bangor, and in 1915 was called on to start work in the Explosive Factory in Litherland. She was promoted to Chemist in Charge of a Laboratory, a very rare position for a woman, and then moved into the same role at H M Factory Penrhyndeudraeth, working on explosives. This job ended with the War, and she returned to academic life in England.

Sources: https://newwoodlesford.xyz/schools/may-sybil-leslie/ Devotion to Their Science: Pioneer Women of Radioactivity, Rayner-Canham Marelene and Geoffrey

Reference: WaW0438

Photograph

May Sybil Leslie while at University College Bangor

Photograph

May Sybil Leslie, Leeds University, c.1920

G L Reynolds

Service: Scientist, chemist, 1917

Notes: In 1915 Miss G L Reynolds was the only postgraduate student in the Chemistry department of University College Aberystwyth. At Christmas 1916 she put her research on hold when she went to do work ‘of national importance’ at the dye company Morton Sundour Fabrics in Carlisle. The dye industry had been highly dependent on German chemicals, and British expertise was needed. It is not clear whether she returned to Aberystwyth.

Reference: WaW0464

Departmental Report

Chemistry department report mentioning Miss G L Reynolds

Departmental report

Chemistry department report stating that Miss G L Reynolds had been given leave to undertake ‘research on the manufacture of special dye’ in Carlisle.

Marion Crosland Soar

Place of birth: Kent

Service: Scientist, Chemist

Notes: Marion Soar entered University College, Bangor in 1913, and graduated BSc in 1917. She then became an assistant lecturer in chemistry at King’s College of Household and Social Science, specialising in bio-chemistry. In 1920 Marion was one of the first cohort of 20 women admitted as fellows to the Chemistry Society (along with Phyllis McKie [qv]), after a very long struggle. Women had been actively attempting admission since 1892.

Sources: Chemistry Was Their Life: Pioneer British Women Chemists 1880 – 1949. Marelene Rayner-Canham & Geoff Rayner-Canham Imperial College Press 2008

Reference: WaW0467

scientific report

Report of the formation of ferrous sulphide in eggs. Biochemical Journal April 1, 1920

Margaret K Turner

Service: Scientist, Chemistry demonstrator, University College Aberystwyth / Coleg Prifysgol A, 1915

Notes: Margaret was appointed Demonstrator in the Chemistry department of Aberystwyth University early in the war. She worked on the preparation of diethylamine, an inhibitor used in pharmaceuticals. At the end of this contract she wrote to the War Committee of the Institute of Chemistry ‘I can put all my time and energy at your service for the next 6 weeks, and am anxious to know whether the few helpers down here could not be allowed to contribute further to the needs of the country? I should be much obliged if you could inform me whether there is any other preparations we can make, as I, for one, am willing and eager to give up all ideas of holidays whilst there remains so much to be done’. We do not know if this offer was taken up.

Sources: Chemistry Was Their Life: Pioneer British Women Chemists 1880 – 1949. Marelene Rayner-Canham & Geoff Rayner-Canham Imperial College Press 2008

Reference: WaW0312

Mary Dilys Glynne (born Glynne Jones)

Place of birth: Upper Bangor

Service: Scientist, plant pathologist, mountaineer, Rothamsted Institute, 1917 - 1960

Death: 1991, Cause not known

Notes: Mary, born 1895, graduated from the botany department of University College Bangor in 1916 (in the same year as Mary Sutherland qv, and fellow Rothamsted worker Violet Gale Jackson qv). On graduating she briefly joined the Agriculture department at Bangor, but in 1917 moved to the Plant Pathology Department at the Rothamsted Experimental Station in Hertfordshire. In 1917 she was one of the founding members of the new Mycology Department there, working on crop diseases. She remained working at Rothamsted until 1960. Mary was also a renowned mountaineer, achieving many firsts for women during the 1920s and 30s.

Sources: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

Reference: WaW0315

Mary Dilys Glynne

Mary Dilys Glynne, mycologist. Courtesy of Gaynor Andrew.

Newspaper report

Report of Bangor graduates including Mary Dilys Glynne, Violet Jackson and Mary Sutherland. North Wales Chronicle 7th July 1916.

Staff list

List of staff at Rothamsted Experimental Station 1918.

Phyllis Violet McKie

Place of birth: Bangor

Service: Scientist, Research chemist

Notes: Phyllis, born July 1893, was the daughter of a clerk at the Penrhyn Quarries. She entered University College Bangor in 1912, and in 1916 was awarded an MSc, as well as a BSc, in recognition of her war work. She developed a new method of producing the explosive tetranitromethane as well as methods of making saccharine and artificial vanilla. She went on to have a distinguished career at several universities.

Sources: Chemistry Was Their Life: Pioneer British Women Chemists 1880 – 1949. Marelene Rayner-Canham & Geoff Rayner-Canham Imperial College Press 2008

Reference: WaW0233

Dr Phyllis Mckie

Phyllis Mckie in doctoral robes, painted by Patrick Phillips 1957.

Margaret Lindsay

Place of birth: Not known

Service: Secretary SSFA

Notes: Margaret, daughter of the Vicar of Tonna, successfully prevented a fraud on the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Families’ Association. Having been tricked into giving £1 to a married couple, the Israels, she ‘jumped on a bicycle’ to pursue them. She recovered the money, less 6d which they had spent on lemonade and biscuits. The Israels were charged with fraud and sentenced to three months hard labour.

Reference: WaW0337

Newspaper report

Herald of Wales 27th March 1915

Ellen ‘Nellie’ Mariana Booker

Place of birth: Southerndown ?

Service: Secretary then Commandant, VAD, 1909 - 1917

Death: February/Chwefror 19, Southerndown, Not known / anhuybys

Notes: Nellie Booker was the sixth daughter of Caroline Booker [qv]. With her mother and sister Etta [qv] she established the Southerndown branch of the Red Cross Society. At the outbreak of war she was the Secretary of the Tuscar House Hospital, and later became its Commandant. Unusually she was given a military funeral: ‘a unique honour for a lady’ (Glamorgan Gazette). Her Red Cross record card does not survive.

Reference: WaW0472

Newspaper report

Report of the opening of Tuscar House Red Cross hospital. Glamorgan Gazette 28th May 1915

Tuscar House Red Cross Hospital, Southerndown. The house was used as a hospital in WW2 as well.

Newspaper report

Report of the troops recovering at Tuscar House. Glamorgan Gazette 18th June 1915

Newspaper report

Part of the report of Nellie Booker’s military funeral. Glamorgan Gazette 2nd March 1917

Beatrice Olivette (Olive) White

Place of birth: Newport

Service: Signaller telegraphist, WAAC, November 1917 - August 1918 /

Death: 1918-11-29, Newport, Pneumonia following influenza / Niwmonia yn dilyn y ffliw

Memorial: St Julians Methodist Church, Newport, Monmouthshire

Notes: Olive, born 1886, joined the Post Office in Newport as a learner in 1903. She later worked in Totnes and Pontypool. In November 1917 she joined the WAAC as a signaller-telegraphist, and was sent to Abbeville in northern France, later transferring to Calais. Whilst home on leave in May 1918 she became ill, and was medically discharged from the WAAC in August. Though she returned to civilian work, she died of the complications of Spanish Flu. Her name appears on the memorial plaque in St Julian’s Methodist Church, Newport, and she is buried in Christchurch cemetery.

Sources: Sylvia Mason: Every Woman Remembered, Daughters of Newport in the Great War. Saron publishers 2018

Reference: WaW0107

Death notice of Olive White

Death notice of Olive White, South Wales Argus

Sarah Ann Harry (née Rees)

Place of birth: Clydach, Cwmtawe

Service: Signals Clerk, 1917-Tachwedd 1918 / 1917 - No

Death: 1964, Cause not known

Notes: Born in 1890, Sarah Rees had worked as a telegraphist in Swansea before joining the WAAC in 1917. She served in signals in France. While there she married her fiancé, Evan John Harry, who was serving in the Field Ambulance Corps. Before the war he was Headmaster of Ynystawe Council School. He walked into a café where she was with friends, and asked her to marry him on the spot. The wedding took place in a small church in Étaples. As a married women Sarah Harry then had to resign from the WAAC. Many thanks to Nia Richards.

Reference: WaW0376

Sarah Ann Harry

Sarah Ann Harry, WAAC signaller

Sarah Ann Harry

Sarah Ann Harry in full outdoor uniform.

WAAC signallers

WAAC signallers. Sarah Ann Harry is seated middle row, second from right.

Newspaper report

Report of Sarah Ann Harry’s marriage and return from France. Llais Llafur 23 November 1918.